Fiona’s mother left the apartment about ten minutes after I did. She didn’t recognize my new car and unknowingly walked right by me, seeming in somewhat of a hurry. Her behavior when I’d brought up Matthew had been suspicious, making me now curious to find out where she was going. So, I decided to follow her.

I pressed the push-start button to be ready for when she drove by, but the engine coughed and sputtered, lights flashed on and off, and a rhythmic clicking sounded in the background. I released my foot from the brake for a moment, then tried again, only to get the same result. The battery was dying and the car refusing to start.

I’d only owned it for a few days and it was certified preowned. This was ridiculous! Sure, I had bought the extended warranty, so this would be covered—but that sure as hell didn’t help me now.

In the rearview mirror, I saw Fiona’s mother’s car pass, heading out of the parking lot. I had no way of following her now, and beyond that, I was stuck here.

I tried to start the car several more times before giving up and calling AAA, then prepared myself for the twenty to thirty-minute wait.

I watched numerous people coming home from work and split my attention by scrolling through my Facebook feed. Then I received a call from the AAA driver, saying he’d be there in the next five minutes.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll just wait here.”

When I turned my attention back outside, I noticed someone new walking along the sidewalk near Fiona’s apartment. Then I noticed he’d come from Fiona’s front door. Twilight and the shadows extending from the apartment buildings were already obscuring his features, but I’d seen enough blurry pictures of him now to realize who I was looking at.

Matthew?

He hadn’t left with Fiona after all; Fiona’s mother had been right about that. But I was convinced he still knew where she was.

Matthew circled the building and disappeared around the back.

I couldn’t believe how quickly my luck had changed. I’d wanted to follow Fiona’s mother, but spotting Matthew was a much better discovery. I didn’t worry about the fact the AAA truck was almost here; I got out of my car and rushed to follow Matthew around the rear of the building.

A greenbelt stretched along the back of the property, a brick wall on the far side, with a main street beyond—the one where I’d gotten into the accident. Fiona’s apartment was three units down, and I got there just in time to see her bathroom window being pushed closed.

If he hadn’t been a suspicious character before, now he was breaking into Fiona’s house? I thought about calling the police, but then decided I needed to face him on my own. He had answers and I was going to get them from him.

I ran to Fiona’s back patio, hopping over the short wall, then attempted to lift the bathroom window. I couldn’t get it to budge; the bastard must have locked it.

It was a setback, but only a small one. I raced around to the front door and found the fake rock hidden in the bushes, which luckily still contained a spare key to the apartment. Fiona had placed it there for me before we’d even started dating, and it was something I thought her mother still didn’t know about.

I unlocked and opened the door as quietly as I could, then tiptoed inside. Matthew was in Fiona’s room, talking. As I listened, I heard another voice—a girl’s, but it wasn’t Fiona’s. As I closed the door, it creaked. The voices in the bedroom fell silent.

I hurried away from the door, ducking into the kitchen. My heart was racing, and I was beginning to think this was a terrible plan. What was I getting myself into?

On the counter before me sat a kitchen knife block. In a panic, I grabbed the handle of the butcher’s knife.

The apartment was quiet now, not to mention eerily dark—with three people in here who didn’t belong. I crept to the edge of the kitchen and peered around the corner, only to find the shadowy figure of Matthew only a few feet away.